1.3.7-Pilferingapples
Brick!Club, Les Miserable Book 1:Fantine Vol.3 Ch.7: The Wisdom of Tholomyes or Apparently Cynics Cannot Shut Up Because seriously, booze +Hugo Cynic appears to just equal Unstoppable Diatribe, no other options. And given how many puns this guy’s tossing out, I think I may pity the French Brick readers today. Tholomyes talks a lot here- does any of it matter? Mostly he’s denouncing women, and telling his friends how they should act and just generally giving horrible social advice. Though,given that he looks…like Tholomyes, and he’s not only dating the Superblonde but has apparently taken command of his friends, maybe he does have useful tips to share! Though I bet he’d never share them, if so. Of course Tholomyes’ real moment of glory is his Kiss of True Not Caring, at the end. Poor Fantine.Poor, POOR Fantine. (and a little bit of sympathy for Favorite, too, because eeeeww.) tomorrow: Everything starts hurting forever! Commentary Gascon-en-exile Indeed, reading this in French is a chore barely worth doing, because so little is actually being said here. At least R’s sexuality is dubious so I might be able to justify looking closely at his drunken rambles, but the best I can get out of this is when Blancheville tells him, “''sois gai''.” And yes, gai can also mean homosexual in modern French, though of course it didn’t at this time. Perhaps Tholomyès, since when drunk he expounds upon the falseness of women, is a two beer queer? He does come back to them at the end of his rant and ends it by kissing (the wrong) one, but still…. It’s a very cosmopolitan rant too, because he throws around not only classical and current political references but words/phrases in Latin, Spanish, and English (though he apologizes for the Spanish - hearkening back to his youth in Toulouse again maybe?). Again, very R-like - the evidence for E/R being Tholomyès/Fantine done right (or at least better, though not much) continues to build. I can honestly say I didn’t see that reading coming when I started rereading these chapters. One could say in Grantaire’s favor that he’d never relegate Enjolras to the very end of an admiring diatribe, or kiss someone else by accident (because even when absolutely wasted, there could be no mistaking the Hottest Boy to Ever Exist Ever for some mere mortal). Small victories, R… Pilferingapples (reply to Gascon-en-exile) Yeah, the sudden need for a Blondes and Cynics tag took me aback too. I obviously wasn’t prepared to make that comparison the first time around, but I’m surprised it’s taken me until now? Because, wow. The parallels are just being blatant (not talking about death scenes not talking about death scenes not talking about death scenes…yet…) One could say in Grantaire’s favor that he’d never relegate Enjolras to the very end of an admiring diatribe, or kiss someone else by accident (because even when absolutely wasted, there could be no mistaking the Hottest Boy to Ever Exist Ever for some mere mortal). Small victories, R… #Brick!Club, #TI.L3.C7, #Tholomyès, #Gives a drunken rant that amounts to nothing, #And so many puns, #Seriously though you could probably read the whole Brick as a reflection of the Amis, I am apparently GOING TO GIVE IT THE OLD COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRY. It is a relief to know I’m not missing some super specific only-in-French jokes, here. Or any real jokes, apparently. Why does this chapter have to exist? We already don’t like Tholomyes. Was it just to point out that, even if he hadn’t left, he wouldn’t have given Fantine’s story a happy outcome, that he always would have been horrible with and for her? If so, wow , that’s…almost worse?